OCFA chief: Early signs of mistakes on hazmat inspections missed

Early signs of mistakes in a hazmat-inspection program were missed, so staffers with the Orange County Fire Authority have begun a records audit to learn exactly what happened, according to an internal memo from the chief.

The audit comes after Chief Keith Richter and the Fire Authority's attorneys met with the District Attorney's Office on Sept. 28 to turn over documents of the department's Hazardous Materials Disclosure Program – more than 1,400 businesses were billed about $360,000 collectively for inspections that were not conducted.

In the internal memo to staffers, Richter points out that a newly established fraud hotline worked as a "safety net," but that earlier warnings should have alerted officials to the mistakes.

"One of the takeaways for all of us is that there were occasions prior to a fraud hotline report that should have alerted us to some of the problems recently identified," Richter wrote in the memo dated Oct. 1 and obtained by The Orange County Register.

About 1,460 businesses throughout the county that use or store hazardous materials were billed for inspections during the 2011-12 fiscal year that weren't done; Fire Authority officials said they are not sure if that error occurred more times in previous years.

The fire department, which serves 23 cities and unincorporated areas of the county, did not violate state standards. However, the mistake has raised serious concerns, including ones for safety. The department's fire marshal described the inspections records system as old and inaccurate. Officials said they are making improvements.

The information retrieved from hazmat inspections is available to the public. It is also needed by firefighters responding to emergency calls.

An anonymous tip to the fraud hotline in February sparked an initial audit. An internal email reviewed by The Orange County Register suggested that administrators in the department were made aware of the discrepancy in late 2011 but took no action until the tip.

"The fraud hotline was put into place to act as a safety net when internal practices and controls fail to correct problems appropriately," read Richter's memo. "In this case, it did what it was designed to do. However, a safety net is the last resort and indicates that we, as an agency, had already failed to correct legitimate problems that allowed our systems to fail."

State regulations require the department do hazmat inspections at least once every three years, but OCFA standards requested they be done yearly. The firefighters' union has said firefighters on the ground were told to cut annual hazmat inspections, even though the agency continued to collect fees for the yearly inspections.

OCFA officials dispute that, and said there was no directive to cut down the frequency in which the inspections were done. Administrators acknowledged, however, that units in the agency - fire prevention, operations, and billing – failed to communicate and spot that businesses were billed without the completed work.

"The OCFA has failed in this instance to meet the high standards we set for ourselves," Richter wrote in the memo. "Because of that, we need to move quickly to repair the damage, regain the public trust, and ensure that these mistakes never happen again."

Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion said the department is reviewing internal processes and controls.

Though administrators, including the chief, and union leaders have offered different opinions as to what went wrong, officials have said they don't believe any criminal activity took place. Refunding the businesses was on the Fire Authority's Sept. 27 agenda, but no decision was made.

"I expect that this agency will act with integrity and honesty in all that we do and we will accept nothing less," the chief's memo read.